


Royally in Troubles

by margoteve



Series: Bonds [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: A thing that should not have ended as long as it is in the end but here we are so, Gen, Lance No, Let's go on an adventure!, Save the Space Dad, gets itty bitty angsty in chapter 2
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-21
Updated: 2016-08-26
Packaged: 2018-08-10 05:13:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 11,616
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7831657
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/margoteve/pseuds/margoteve
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lance and Hunk go on a mission to rescue Shiro from the planet Khanos. They will need a bit of a helping hand there though, or do they?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Deep Dive

“Okay, looks like Coran's disruption signal is working,” Lance checked his scanners, it looked like the Galra had not detected them yet. “I think we’re close enough to Khanos, ready to test that copying thingy?”

“Yeah, let’s pray it works,” Hunk hovered behind Lance watching the approaching Khanos. 

The planet was emerald green, with patches of yellow and some blue here and there. At first glance one could not tell if there actually WAS a barrier in the first place, but as one would look closer they would notice shimmerings of silver light here and there, like the glimmer of sunlight over water. It was beautiful in its own way.

“Don’t worry man!” Lance quickly input the command over the board and his Lion rumbled quietly as the programme activated. “Remember they used to call me tailor-”

“Yeah, because how you thread the needle, I get it.” Hunk interrupted him. “I also remember what happened the last time you said that so I'm tell you now. If we die, I totally blame you and I will never speak to you again.”

Lance sulked in his chair, glaring at Hunk before turning back to the controls.

They were by the barrier now, ready to breach it. Hunk felt nauseous from all that nervous pressure, and Lance was definitely holding his breath, it felt as if even the Lion itself was tense. Slowly they started to sink through the barrier.

It was a very accurate description - it looked like they were diving into water, the barrier wavering around them like waves washing over rocks. 

They were almost past it, ready to call it a success when suddenly angry red flashed before their eyes. 

“Oh this is bad.” Hunk took a step back from the pilot seat looking around in mild panic.

“My Lion can't move! The barrier caught us!” Lance yelled going wild with the steering board trying everything he could think of.

Suddenly an angry wave crashed over them, tossing them like a pebble in a can. The Lion was sent into a spin. The Paladins started screaming. 

“WE’RE GONNA DIE!”

“SHUT UP, AND DON’T YOU DARE PUKE IN MY LION AGAIN!”

The barrier treated them like a tiny ship on an ocean during a violent storm. Waves of energy beat over the hull, merciless. Alarms were blaring out and all they could do was to hold on for dear life and hope to survive. Suddenly the lights went out and neither remembered the moment they crashed onto the surface of Khanos.

Luckily for them, their fall was amortized by gigantic trees with branches as thick as two of the Blue Lion's legs, and vines, stopping the Lion literal inches from the ground and hanging them head down.

“Ugh, my head,” Hunk woke up first, hand over his helmet, trying to make his vision stop swimming.

In the pilot seat Lance groaned in pain, he was in no better condition than his friend. “Well, at least we’re alive.” He rubbed his face.

“Uh, Lance? I think we have company.” Hunk pointed forward to an alien, who stared at them with mix of awe and confusion.

He/she/they were definitely reptilian, though this one, from the shape of their head resembled a snake. They were slender, with blue scales that seemed to have a pattern running over their sides. On top of their head was a lush crest of orange-red feathers and a pair of huge wings grew out of their back. They had yellow eyes with vertical slit-like pupil and piercings where their eyebrows should be. The alien was wearing a simple, green skirt with red sash tied around their waist. They were holding a wooden spear in their hand. 

“Ah, quiznack!” Lance groaned again and hung his head.

Carefully they exited the Lion, their arms up in sign of harmlessness. 

“Hi! We come in peace!” The Blue Paladin called to the alien who, seeing them, took on a battle stance aiming their spear at them.

Technically it seemed like they outnumbered and outgunned the creature, but they remembered what Allura told them - diplomacy first, that was what it meant to be a Voltron ’s Paladin. It wouldn't hurt them to try that first and then defend themselves later. 

The alien’s yellow eyes darted between the two humans, assessing them and the Lion behind them. Finally they seemed to relax and walked up to the Paladins. They were about 5 feet 5 inches up close and were standing on their toes. They touched their own chest and made a wide, horizontal gesture toward Hunk and Lance, it must have been a greeting.

Hunk dropped his hands, still cautious, soon followed by Lance.

“Welcome to Khanos, travellers,” suddenly the alien spoke in soft, pleasant voice. It was light and airy, and there was a bit of hissing layered on the name of the planet. 

Lance’s eyes lit up and he was at the alien’s side in an instant, striking his best Casanova pose. “So, what what is a lady doing alone in a forest all by herself?”

Hunk audibly facepalmed and the alien looked confused.

“Ummm….” 

“Let me introduce myself, I’m Lance, the Paladin of Voltron and pilot of the Blue Lion,” he reached for her hand, leaning into a bow. 

Suddenly his world flipped and his face was pressed into the ground, arm twisted and secured behind him. He was in a position all too familiar.

“Owowowow!” Lance cried out in pain, successfully immobilized. Hunk was laughing in the background, already planning to tell the rest of the paladins.

“You will  _ NOT _ touch me without my permission!” she yelled angrily.

“Alright! I’m sorry!” 

Just as quickly he’s been brought down, Lance was released and yanked upward. 

“Geeze, lady! You crazy or something?” He rubbed his arm and neck, glaring at her with hurt. 

“My name is not ‘lady’. It’s Amoxtli, and you should have asked before trying that,” she huffed, lightly stomping her foot.

“She has a point.” Hunk threw in.

“Thank you,” Amoxtli bowed her head shallowly at Hunk. “You said you’re Paladins of Voltron?” She quickly changed topic, referring to what Lance said earlier.

“Yup, I’m Hunk, pilot of the Yellow Lion,” Hunk gestured to himself and then pointed to Lance. “You know Lance now.”

“Yeah,” Amoxtli eyed the Blue Paladin with a grimace. “She needs to learn that touching strangers here without permission usually brings trouble.”

He snorted. “We’re guys.”

“Oh. I’m so sorry! I assumed- oh dear, my apologies!” The feathery crest on Amoxtli’s head flared up like an alarmed parrot as she started apologizing.

“It’s okay,” he chuckled. “I guess you don’t get many strangers here.”

“No, not with Galra up there.” She looked up at the sky, then back to Hunk. “Why are you two here, and how did you get passed the barrier?”

“Yeah, that’s a long story,” Lance butted in, getting over his humiliation, “but here’s the abridged version - We were fighting Zarkon, got separated and one of our teammates is here and we need to get him back.”

“What he said. We’re looking for the Black Lion and a guy named Takashi Shirogane, we call him Shiro, for short.” Hunk added. “Can you help us?”

Amoxtli went from assessing them silently to completely ignoring their question, “You still haven’t told me how you managed to get through the barrier.”

“Oh right, we have a device to copy the signature of your barrier, but it kinda failed halfway through,” Hunk answered. It was better to be honest with locals right?

If lizards could go pale, Amoxtli would have done so at that very moment. Her face morphed into something resembling fear.

“You… you copied the barriers energy and it didn't repel you?”

“Not at first, no.” The Yellow Paladin shook his head.

“Look, we  _ are _ Defenders of the Universe,” Lance tried to reassure her, “we’re the good guys. We won’t sell you off to Zarkon. We're the ones who fight him!”

Amoxtli still looked unsure and glanced at the Blue Lion with worry but then some sort of determination appeared on her face.

“Alright," she said finally, "I will help you find your friend. In fact I know where to start.”

After they managed to get the Blue Lion to the ground with Amoxtli’s help they covered it up  with branches, grabbed their stuff and began their march toward her camp. Amoxtli’s weapons turned out to be more advanced than they were giving her credit for. Currently Hunk was examining one of her daggers. The material of the handle appeared to be wooden but was much lighter than wood, it was shaped like a bone at one end, with the quillion in a V shape. Intricate etching of a sun and some odd animals ran over it. The tear-shaped blade was made of a white metal, thin as paper and so sharp Hunk cut his finger on it even though he barely even touched it.

“Ouch!” He sucked on his thumb, frowning over it. “I felt something like a zap, did it just electrocute me?”

“Yes, it’s a nanoblade, it cuts on a cellular level. The blade is made of xasmite, metal mined in the northern countries of Khanos. The main property of that metal is that it conducts electricity from anything, even air,” Amoxtli explained as she sprayed the cut with something stopping the bleeding.

“Wow, what about your spear then?”

She smirked at him and grabbed the spear with both hands. Then, with a mere flick of her wrist, the shaft lit up blue, the spear head broke into three parts and started generating electricity between the blades. She shot it at a nearby boulder, vaporizing half of it with the charge.

Both Paladins had to gather their jaws from the ground.

“Holy quiznack,” Lance whispered under his breath before shouting. “That’s amazing!” 

“Thank you, but it’s really nothing,” Amoxtli’s feathers twitched as she shifted a bit sheepishly and started to walk again.

“Nothing? You just poofed out a rock! Like snap!” Lance snapped his fingers, his face pure excitement. “That was badass.”

If Amoxtli could blush, she would, instead her feathers fluffed up and she turned her head away, trying to hide her smile. She wasn’t sure what ‘badass’ meant but from his tone she assumed it was something good.

“What were you even doing out here?” Hunk asked her once his amazement passed. “If you don’t mind me asking?”

“I don’t mind. I was finishing my, um, sort of rite of passage? A training preparing me for my future duties.” 

“What duties?” Lance eyed the spear now closely. He wondered if she’d let him use it…

“For the army,” Amoxtli explained. “I’m supposed to be accepted as a captain next week, and I had to finish the training.”

“Hopefully we’re not interrupting you or anything?” Hunk worried for a second. 

“No, I was going to head home today anyway, I guess the gods were kind to you, letting you meet me here.”

“Oh yeah, this reminds me, how are you going to help us find Shiro?” Lance finally managed to tear his eyes away from the spear.

“Well, to be honest, from what you said he must have been caught in a lure. I’m not sure which area of Khanos he fell into but we’re close to Ashoxsas, the capital of the Syvesin race, my race. I… work in the royal palace, if I can get to one of the information panels, we can pinpoint the exact location of your friend and his Lion.”

Hunk eyed Amoxtli, catching on the hesitation in her voice, was there something she wasn’t telling them? Lance didn’t notice anything, instead asking her more about her weapons to which she happily answered until they reached her camp. 

It surprisingly reminded both of them of an Earth camp. There was a tent made out of a material that blended in with the surroundings making it nearly invisible unless someone was looking for it. Lance would have walked into it if not for Amoxtli's last minute warning. She told them to wait as she changed inside of her tent. The boys used that time to put on their cloaks. If they were going into territory that clearly didn’t tolerate outsiders, it was better not to be too obvious.

Five minutes later she was out, no longer wearing her skirt and instead a pair of shorts made from a jean-like material, and a pair of black boots with silver buckles, profiled to fit her digitigrade feet. One thing familiar was the red sash around her waist.

“I’m ready to go,” she announced and pressed a button on her belt. The tent behind her folded up instantly and compressed into a disk the size of her palm. She picked it up and put it in her pocket.

“So how are we gonna get to the capital?” Lance asked, adjusting his hood.

“We’re going to fly,” Amoxtli announced as a matter of fact as she strapped her spear between her wings on her back. “You’ll need to hold onto me though.”

“Are you sure about that? I mean, I’m not exactly what you’d call a lightweight…” Hunk scrunched his nose and looked down over himself.

“It will be fine.” She assured him, then leered at Lance. “No funny touching.”

“I didn’t do anything yet!” he threw his hands up.

Amoxtli spread her wings wide, stretching them a little. while Hunk and Lance basically hugged themselves to her. She wrapped each hand around their waists and without a warning zipped into the sky, accompanied by their joined yells of surprise. 

“Are you always this loud?” she asked them steadying her flight, wings beating the air in a steady rhythm.

Lance was the first to recover.“Only when a beautiful woman carries me through the sky,” he threw in, arching an eyebrow in another attempt to flirt.

“I can still drop you, you know.” She shot back.

“Lance it’s really not the time,” Hunk covered his mouth last second trying not to puke. God this was definitely bad for his stomach.

“Is he always like this?” Amoxtli asked the Yellow Paladin.

“Yeah, unfortunately.”

“Hey, I’m right here you know?” The Blue Paladin huffed then turned his head to look ahead of them. “Wow, is that Ashoxsas?”

Amoxtli followed his line of sight and smiled. “Yes.”

Ahead of them from above the trees grew a city of silver and white. Soaring, slender buildings shimmered in the light of the day, some of them had green vines climbing metal supports that made everything looking like it was weightless. They circled above the city briefly observing the citizens walking and flying about it. Parks were filled with people spending their day relaxing, and from so high in the sky Lance and Hunk could pretend this was still Earth. Just for a few sweet moments.

Finally they had to land. Amoxtli chose a back alley behind one of the buildings to drop them off. 

“Stay here, I will come back in a moment.” She whispered to them.

“Wait! Where are you going?” Hunk called after her.

“Don’t worry. I'm going to get someone who can aid us. I’ll be back soon,” she waved him off and flew out of the alley, going around the building.

“Still having bad feelings about this?”  Lance swung his arm in circles, trying to stretch the joints after the flight.

“I don’t know. I feel like Amoxtli is not telling us everything. She’s hiding somethin’.” Hunk stretched his back with a slight moan until he heard a satisfying pop.

Lance shuddered. “Augh, dude. Stop.”

“Sorry,” Hunk chuckled, rubbing the back of his head. “Anyway I hope she didn't go for like reinforcement to drag us into dungeon or something.”

“Yeah, that would put a damper on our possible relationship,” Lance mused to himself.

“Oh boy.” Hunk rolled his eyes.

Suddenly the doors into the building to their left swished open and both instinctively reached for their bayards but not yet activating them ready to attack. Fortunately, instead of guards or police, Amoxtli's feathery head peeked from the side and she waved her hand, calling them inside.

“Come, all clear.” 

“What is this place anyway?” Hunk inspected the insides as they entered.

It looked like a storage room with boxes on shelves. He touched the walls and realized they were made of something resembling blackened glass or crystal. Maybe basalt? It was perfectly smooth with no trace of mechanical work. Fascinating.

“It’s an item shop.” Amoxtli climbed one of the storage shelves and perched atop of it.

“Item shop?” Hunk tilted his head to her.

“Yeah, you can buy magical items or medicine here, some gemstones. Things like that.”

“So I could like get something and become like a wizard or something?” Lance tried to look inside one of the box but was suddenly stopped by a massive, red scaled, webbed hand.

Lance jumped back looking up alarmed. There was a giant, 7 foot tall lizard man in the room now. He was very different from Amoxtli. He had a dog like snout with two mustache like barbs growing from his nose. A black mane ran down his back and two short antlers grew out of his head. A tail swished behind him with the fin shaped like whale’s. He was wine red with cream underbelly. His eyes were mismatched - one green and other white. Unlike Amoxtli, he had no wings. He wore soft, brown slacks and knee high boots, and a waterfall style black vest.

“Only if you have potential,” he told Lance, giving him a hard stare. “Khanos has high concentration of quintessence. Second highest only to ancient Altea. Therefore magic here is stronger.” His voice was deep and guttural with hint of a growl. 

The Blue Paladin stared at the male Khanosian with wide eyes before clearing his throat and said nonchalantly, placing his hand on his hip. “Yeah, we knew that. Anyway, who are you?” He crossed his arms over his chest and raised an eyebrow at the stranger.

The red Khanosian smirked at Amoxtli raising an eyebrow at her to which she replied with an angry glare. That made him grin widely at her and turn his attention back to the two humans.

“Ji’en. I run this shop and am supposed to help you three get to the castle unnoticed.” The shopkeeper replied, leaning back with crossed arms. “But I am having second thoughts on this,” he added coldly.

“Okay, I have a question,” Hunk called to them. “HOW are you going to help us? Neither me nor Lance have any magic powers or anything like that.”

“But it is a magical items shop you’re in,” Ji’en smirked. “Wait here.” He told them and went back to the main room, returning a minute later with two necklaces with purple stones.

“What are those?” Lance asked taking the necklace from him and poking the stone pendant.

“Just put them on,” the shopkeeper told them, “and look in the mirror.” He uncovered a floor mirror.

Well they had no better ideas so they followed his instructions and looked at each other. And Lance screamed.

“WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED!” Lance cried out looking at his hands and at Hunk. Then sprinted to the mirror. “I’M A LIZARD!”

In the mirror, where Lance should have been stood a blue scaled Khanosian. He was slender, with a long neck and a spiked fin running from the top of his head , down his back. His head was shaped like a galapagos marine iguana. Small, ice like crystals were growing along his body and he even had a tail! His hands were now webbed and there were gills on his neck! The crystal even changed his outfit to something that was similar to Ji’en’s outfit.

“What is this thing!?” Hunk’s eyes widened at the sight of Lance’s change.

“A vision distortion device.” Ji’en supplied with a wide grin. Boy it was fun to watch them freak out. “It works as long as you have this on.”

“Like… a hologram?” The Yellow Paladin walked to the mirror standing behind Lance.

He saw a bulky, yellow scaled Khanosian with a head like a Komodo Dragon, who had bat-like wings growing out of his back. Bony plates covered the front of his head, down his snout and a little over his brows, going over the back of his head and down his arms and stomach. His tail was swishing behind him with a spike at the end of it. The crystal also gave him sturdy looking cargo pants and boots.

“Kinda like that yes.” the Khanosian male nodded.

“So it’s not permanent?” Lance had to make sure. He didn’t want to spend his life as a lizard!

“Of course not,” Ji’en snorted amused, though he was tempted to lie. Just for the heck of it.

“Too bad, you look quite handsome like that.” Amoxtli jumped off of the shelf and landed softly next to Lance, who looked at her, blinking. He was quite stumped for a brief second.

Okay maybe it wouldn’t be THAT bad after all. “On second thought can I keep it?” he asked Ji’en.

“Miss over there bought them, I don’t care what you’re gonna do with them,” he shrugged. “But I think your disguise will give you more trouble than help.”

“At least they don’t look like aliens anymore.” Amoxtli pointed out. “That would be even worse.”

“True,” Ji’en shrugged. “Now get out of here. I have work to do.” He rounded up the trio and shoved them out through the back doors before anyone could react.

“Wow, that guy’s rude.” Hunk grimaced. “So what’s the plan now?”

“We wait till dark to sneak into the palace. I know the guards routes and all the blind spots, so we will get to the control room where they store all the information about alien prisoners, even if they landed in a different country.”

“What did he mean by the disguises causing trouble?” Lance was still feeling up his new face.

Amoxtli sighed. “I’ll explain while we walk.” She gestured for them to follow her. 

They entered the main street and instantly both Paladins were swallowed by the light. Everything was white and silver, reflecting light in all directions. Even the sidewalks were built out of a powdery grey stone that was leaning on the brighter side of colour spectrum. 

Other colours were delivered by the green trees with big violet flowers, the vines climbing the buildings and the people. 

Khanosians were incredibly diverse in colour and shapes. Of course Ashoxsas being the capital of the Syvesin race, the majority of people looked more like Amoxtli. But even they varied incredibly among one another. There were long crests with lush, pink feathers and even brighter yellow scales as well as short brownish grey crests and dark, bleak green scales. The sizes varied between 5 to 9 feet. Wings or no wings, people with wings instead of arms. 

They were flying, walking or driving vehicles that looked like sleek hoverbikes. There were groups chatting on the corners of the street, someone was buying flowers in pots, children were chasing one another and laughing. It was peaceful.

The Paladins were amazed.

“This is so different from the Balmera…” Hunk muttered to himself.

“All these people… you can't even tell there’s a war going on right above them,” Lance turned to Amoxtli. “When we came here we thought we would see ruins and people driven by violence but this… your world is beautiful.”

“Five hundred solar cycles ago it wasn't like that. And trust me, it only looks calm but everyone- we  _ all _ fear the day the barrier might break.”

“I understand why us coming here the way we did worries you so much.” Lance murmured to her with compassion. “What happened five hundred years ago?”

“The barrier has been breached by Galra before.” She clenched her fists and her voice wavered. “My-  _ Our  _ prince _ ,  _ Syvesin’s crown prince was murdered by the invaders.”

“How was that possible?”

They entered a square, in the middle of it was a tall, silver statue of a proud Syvesin. Their crest was short and they were wearing and armour, their wings half spread and were holding a spear.

Amoxtli looked up at the statue. 

“That’s him. Crown Prince K’kxan. Oldest son of King and Queen. He was the pride of our people, someone we all looked up to,” her voice softened with sadness and melancholy. “We knew the Galra would attack us eventually but the barrier has been protecting us forever. The royal families of all races has been living in peace and harmony upholding it together.

"We never suspected - the Khirita, a race that you, Lance, imitate, decided to betray us. Their royal family had been killed and the nobles conspired with the Galra. the barrier cracked open. When other nations realized what had happened it was too late, the Galra were here, destroying our cities. Ashoxsas was under heavy fire. The Queen and Prince were leading the battle, while the King and other royals were trying to close the barrier. They finally managed to do it but many of us died.” She inhaled shakily, the feathers on her head laying low and miserably down her head. She had to clear her throat before being able to continue. 

"The prince was taken captive by the surviving Galra soldiers and executed publicly to intimidate us. It only made us angrier.” Amoxtli’s shoulders shook and her jaw clenched. “I will never forget that day.” She hugged herself hanging her head down. 

It was clear the memory had heavily impacted her. Syvesins must have really close bond to their royal family. Or maybe there was more to the story. Either way Hunk and Lance felt sorry for the girl. 

Lance wanted to put his arm around her for a hug. He had sisters and female cousins, so he knew that sometimes comfort doesn't come from words. Problem was he didn't know if she was going to throw him over her shoulder again. He tried by putting his hand on her shoulder. It made her look up at him and smile lightly. 

Hunk on the other had was opening his mouth to say something when a realisation stroke him.

“Wait, you said that was five hundred years ago and you say you remember that?” 

“Yes, I was there.”

“No offence but how old are you?”

“I’m 665 solar cycles old which translates into 21 Khanosian age cycles. I was 6 when it happened,” she almost growled angrily at Hunk, offended by him thinking she could be lying. 

“... Okay, fine.” He raised his hands up. After all they were working with Allura who has been asleep for ten thousand years old and God only knew how old  _ she  _ was.

“So,” Lance cleared his throat, “since I resemble one of those… Khirita people, I'm guessing getting to the palace will be harder?”

“Easier than if you were aliens, but harder than if you were any other race.”

“Can’t we just ask your angry friend to give us a different crystal?”

“The crystal read the DNA of a person then chooses the look that is the most compatible with the user. Even if we tried another one the result would be the same,” she explained, pulling herself together and taking a step back from Lance.

“Oh, guess magic is more difficult than engineering.” Hunk sighed.

Then his stomach growled, reminding him it was long past lunch time. Right on que Lance's stomach replied with the same reaction.

Amoxtli chuckled as the two boys blushed embarrassed. “C’mon. I know a great take-out place.”

Half an hour later Hunk and Lance lost their appetite. Amoxtli's take out place looked more like a pet shop.  Apparently Khanosian ate their meat alive.

“What's wrong?” Amoxtli asked them with a puzzled expression, holding a box of some fluffy, squeaking critters.

“I don’t know how to tell you this,” Lance took on the duty to inform her, “but humans eat their meat dead.” Behind him Hunk was standing by the doors breathing deeply and trying not to look at anyone eating. 

“I can kill them for you.” She seriously didn’t see any problem there.

“No, no no. See, we eat ‘processed’ meat. You know, dead, skinned and cooked.” 

Now it was Amoxtli’s turn to make horrified face. “You  _ cook _ your meat?” she whispered with shock.

“Yeah, we kinda do.” Lance tried very hard to not to stare at some old Khanosian swallowing something that looked like small snake, like it was a noodle.

Amoxtli looked at her box with a troubled expression. “I guess… there’s the fruit shop down the street?”

“Thank God,” Lance sighed with relief. 

Sometime later they were riding an elevator, both Paladins had their hands full, holding grocery bags and munching on baked goods. They were almost crying over what they called a “space burrito”, and Amoxtli was looking at them like they were crazy.

“Boy, you two must really miss Earth food.”

“It’s just sad you don’t have it with meat but this is still great,” Hunk sniffled taking another bite of his space burrito.

“Hey waffs dat?” Lance asked pointing ahead through the glass doors toward two buildings that were standing out like a pair of sore thumbs. 

Both looked like some sort of pyramids,one jet black and the other blue. 

“The black structure is the Temple of Underworld God Zhiax, that’s where all Galran prisoners are taken if they have the bad luck of falling into our territory. The other building is the royal castle.”

Hunk looked at the sky where the sun was pretty high up. “How long is the day here?”

“Day and Night cycle together give 30 hours in total.”

“Crap, so how much longer before the sunset?”

“Quite a bit of time actually.” The elevator pinged, letting them out. “If you want to, I can put The News on, they could be talking about your friend.”

Amoxtli led them to her apartment, opening the doors with a light swipe of her hand. “Make yourself at home.”

She didn’t have to say it twice. After they dropped the groceries in what she told them was the kitchen and took off the crystals, they sure took advantage of the new place. Both Lance and Amoxtli had to drag Hunk multiple times from various gizmos and devices placed all over the apartment. Their host would laugh each time they asked how something worked because it was so obvious to her but not to  them, and each time she’d patiently explain everything she could.

Once Lance discovered she had a gaming console they had to play one of the games she had. They settled for multiplayer racing. Hunk declined the game, being much more interested in some old equipment that Amoxtli had given him the green light to reverse engineer. 

It took Lance a bit to get used to the new controls, therefore losing the first race to Amoxtli, but the next three were his. They laughed together, shouting threats jokingly at one another and God, Lance needed that. Just - video games, good food and someone other than Hunk or Keith or even Pidge to joke with. He loved his friends, yes, but between Hunk’s constant worry about everyone and Keith’s lack of sense of social clues, it was good to meet someone to just be teenager with for a little bit.

Since becoming a Paladin, his world seemed to expand and shrink at the same time. There was an entire universe out there for them to explore, but constantly playing tag with Galra meant that he felt like he was being forced to grow up faster than he wanted. Sometimes Lance felt he was suffocating, and being homesick wasn’t helping him any.

“Is something wrong?” Amoxtli furrowed her brows noticing his sudden change in mood.

“Nah,” he brushed it off with a small laugh and a confident smile. “Thanks for the race.”

“You’re welcome, but you owe me a rematch.” She turned the game off and set her controller down. “After we get your friend back.” she noted pointing to the slowly setting sun. 

“Uh, guys, you should see this. I think we might have another problem,” Hunk called them to the holoscreen where a newsreporter was giving a live report on a discovery by the Khanos' army. A discovery which just so happened to be the Blue Lion that they were currently hauling away.

“This is a disaster!” Lance yelled grabbing his hair.

“What are we gonna do now?” Hunk turned to Amoxtli who didn't look fazed by what had happened.

“We stick to the plan. This might not be as bad of a thing as you may think,” she replied with a cool head, the feathers on her head twitching only slightly. “The guards will be out of the palace looking for the pilot in the city and the forest.

“What do you mean it’s not bad?! If Keith learns I got my Lion stolen again he'll never let me live it down!” Lance agonized. 

Amoxtli gave him a pointed look and sighed. Hunk was just disappointed.

“They are most likely to be taking it to where the Black Lion is. This might also create just the diversion we need. If they're focused on looking for one alien they might actually miss three locals,” she told Hunk.

“You knew this would happen, didn’t you?” The Yellow Paladin realized with horror.  

“I had a feeling, yes,” she admitted.

“You made us sell out our ONLY way of escaping!” Hunk yelled at her.

“I didn’t!” Amoxtli raised her voice, her feathers bristling. “It WILL be with the Black Lion, I  _ know _ how this works!”

“Okay, time out!” Lance stood between them, making Hunk take a step back, although the Yellow Paladin still looked angry. “We’re in a bit of a pinch but I’m sure if we work together it will all turn out okay. We can save Shiro and, more importantly, I can shove it right into Keith’s face.” 

“Yeah, whatever.” Hunk stomped away to the kitchen to grab his crystal.

Lance took a deep breath and sighed, then turned to Amoxtli with a bit of a hurt expression. “You should have told us.”

“I’m sorry.” Her shoulders dropped and she didn’t look at him. “Would you have trusted me if I suggested that at first?”

“I don’t know, but you should have told us something.” He turned his back to her and went to get his crystal from the couch. 

They had to get moving soon and fast.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was supposed to be another quick one shot of 6k but ended up being 11k+ words long so I had to split it into two parts. A side mission that happens parallel to Keith's adventure with Thace. I will update 2nd chapter in couple days or so.  
> Amoxtli is my OC I actually roleplay [Here ](http://feathers-and-scales.tumblr.com) (shameless selfpromotion, I know). I drew actually an art of how she looks like but I couldn't chose the version so here's two. Pick whichever you like more: [ Here ](http://feathers-and-scales.tumblr.com/post/148599273340/i-drew-amoxtli-again-for-the-dragons-in-space) and [Here ](http://feathers-and-scales.tumblr.com/post/138566836300/soooo-nunchuckpanther-couple-months-ago-got-me)  
> I will also be posting a Headcanon post regarding Khanos' culture and whatnot, after I post the chapter 2 if anyone will be actually interested.
> 
>  
> 
> Beta Read by followmetoyourdoom (who also has amazing Thace x Mama Kogane fic you totally should check out!)  
> Hope you like it. Please leave a comment and come poke me on my tumblr - margoteve.tumblr.com  
> Or you could join this Discord channel made for Voltron fandom: https://discord.gg/u4VCJQC


	2. Rescue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance and Hunk finally get to do some rescuing, or do they? 
> 
> Shiro appears!

The sudden tension that arose after their argument didn’t help them at all as they set off for the palace. Hunk would twitch every second a guard would look at them or stop them for a moment to inform them of their search and to keep their eyes open, on the lookout for anything unusual. At least what Amoxtli had said about the guards was true.

The city was suddenly filled with silver armoured Khanosians, going around trying to catch ‘probably Galran or another alien species pilot’, and civilians were very eager to offer help. Another thing that checked out was guards knowing Amoxtli by name. Many would congratulate her on her return from her rite and wished to see her soon at her new position. 

Once they got onto the palace’s premises, Amoxtli lead them off of the main road and into the bushes, showing them a hidden path.

“Go this way and use the pillars to hide. Once behind a pillar wait for about 10 ticks before going to another one. Go east to west in a zigzag path to avoid being spotted by cameras. Once you reach the palace’s wall, hide behind the statue. I’ll open the doors for you from inside,” she explained to them before leaving.

“I wonder-” Hunk started to say something but Lance stopped him immediately.

“If the next words are going to be about Amoxtli betraying us, I’m going in alone,” Lance threatened.

“She’s keeping things from us! And you as usual are too busy making gooey eyes at her to see it!” Hunk snarked.

“I’m not! It’s not like that! She’s- she’s just the first nice person in like forever who genuinely wants to help us and not kill us! Not even once has she asked for anything in return. I trust her!” Lance huffed at him, feeling his frustration grow.

“You trusted Nyma.” 

“Stop bringing that back! Amoxtli is different.” Lance ended that on softer tone. “We can talk about this later. The guards have just changed.”

They followed the instruction Amoxtli has left them to a T, and after they hid behind the statue. They waited for a couple of really tense seconds before suddenly a stone block was removed and her feathered head appeared once more.

“Welcome to the Palace of Syvesin!” she whispered. “Follow me.”

Running through the corridors of the palace felt like going through a maze, they have taken so many turns and stairs it was hard to keep up. Not to forget the need to be constantly vigilant in case any of the guards should spot them. 

The worst to cross were the wide corridors with a lot of open space, even with the shadows hiding them. Finally they reached a room and Amoxtli set to work on the panel, inputting commands into the computer.

“Once we get the information, I will take you to the hangars where you can take a small vessel and fly to where you friend is,” she murmured to the two. 

“Thanks, that means a lot,” Lance put his hand over her shoulder in gratitude.

“No problem- oh!”

“What? Did you get anything?” Hunk abandoned his spot by the doors and turned to them.

“Yes! I did,” Amoxtli didn’t hide the excitement in her voice. “Lance, the Blue and Black Lions are here!”

“What about Shiro?” Lance needed to know

“Hmm…” she quickly scanned the displayed data. “Sorry, he’s not here.”

“Do you know where he is?” Hunk inquired.

“Yes, he’s all the way in Aufas.”

“Where  _ is _ that?”

“It’s Osylons territory. The capital of all Khanos. He’s in the Golden Palace, waiting the result of his trial.” She explained closing the files and returning the system to standby.

“Okay, so let’s grab the Blue Lion and go get him.” The Yellow Paladin suggested.

“That’s a bad idea, taking the Lion I mean.”

“Listen up, here-” Hunk gritted his teeth angrily.

“No, you listen. If you take the Blue Lion they will notice, double the guards around the Black Lion and then you will have a problem-”

“Uh, guys…” Lance interrupted Amoxtli's angry rant. “We have company.” 

Amoxtli turned slowly and faced a five person squad, their spears buzzing with electric charge. 

“Heeey Xoc, you’re back from the field? I thought you were still chasing that alien that landed today,” she smiled looking rather calm except for her feathers that twitched and fluffed up despite her attempts to keep them neutral.

One of the females stepped forward. She was about 6 feet 5 inches tall, had brightly purple feathers and cyan scales. She and her team were dressed in black armour with a crescent moon on their chest plates.

“Yes, I was,” she glared at Amoxtli. “We found some vines that were cut really cleanly. Seemed to me like either the pilot has technology similar to ours or someone was helping them. Weren't you supposed to be there this morning?” Her head tilted slightly, questioningly, her feathers perfectly still.

“I left earlier, before the crash.” Amoxtli straightened up.

“Really?” Xoc stepped even closer, towering over Amoxtli. “What were you doing after you came back? You didn't show up in the screens until mid morning. Who are your friends?” she asked with her hand on her hip.

Lance and Hunk flanked Amoxtli. This was really bad, it looked like they were discovered. They might have to defend themselves.

“This is Lin’ce and Hux from my university's study group, we run into each other in Ji’en’s shop.”

“The half bred traitor’s shop?” Xoc raised her eyebrows.

“You can ask him.” Amoxtli lifted her chin up a tad.

“I did.” Xoc lowered her head to look the smaller female in the eye.

“Oh?” Amoxtli's feathers halted their twitching for a second.

“Yes and he confirmed your story.” Xoc smirked. For some reason that didn't make anyone feel any better.

“That's good.” 

“Awesome,” suddenly Lance exclaimed. He put his hands on Amoxtli's shoulders sticking his head next to hers. “If that's all we should go, I mean wow the palace is great place you know but you know it’s getting late-” he started to push their companion toward the doors. 

Hunk followed tightly behind them.

“Ladies~” Lane winked at the other soldiers. “Hey, have you done something with your feathers? They look so shiny.” he asked one as he tried to get past them.

“Stop.” Xoc called, and suddenly Lance was inches away from a spear, the electric charge washing his face in hot air from the aftershocks. 

The Paladin gulped, suddenly remembering how Amoxtli obliterated a rock earlier this morning with one of these things.

“If you have nothing to hide you will let me see those pretty necklaces you have.” Xoc approached them again reaching toward Hunk’s neck.

That was it, they were going to get discovered anyway.

“Go!” Amoxtli yelled, grabbing Xoc’s forearm, stomping on her foot and punching her in the face.

Lance didn't need to be told twice. He grabbed the nearest spear as he ducked under it, redirecting the blast to the wall and kicking its wielder in the stomach. At the same time Hunk drew his bayard, blasting his cannon at the guards forcing them to scatter.

“Sorry!” he called to them. 

“Amoxtli!” Lance shouted for their friend as they ran.

“Right behind you!” she replied jumping out of the room with the soldiers shooting at her. “Keep running!” 

She sprinted ahead of them. Damn she was fast! 

They were chased by not only Xoc’s squad, but now it seemed that the rest of the guards returned to the palace and were showing up in every corridor.

“This way!” Amoxtli took a sharp turn into yet another one only to halt with a sharp curse. Slowly she raised her hands up in defeat. 

“Quiznack!” Lance huffed, copying her motion, as did Hunk. 

They were surrounded by about 50 soldiers. Xoc pushed between them to face the Paladins and their companion.

“Give up, princess. You’re in big trouble.” 

Amoxtli groaned and Hunk exchanged confused looks behind her. Princess?

Later the trio was disarmed, chained up and thrown into a transport vessel heading for Aufas. They also took away the disguise crystals from the Paladins and wrapped bindings around Amoxtli’s wings. 

“Well, on the bright side, they are taking us to where Shiro is, right?” Lance tried to cheer his friends up.

Amoxtli was sulking in the corner while Hunk was glaring at her from his. 

“I don’t get one thing - why didn’t you tell us you were a princess.” Hunk finally spoke up.

Amoxtli lifted her head from the wall, and refocused her eyes at Hunk. “Oh, I don’t know. Maybe because you two literally dropped from the sky? Because you SHOULDN’T be here in the first place? Because you were two ALIENS on MY planet? How should I know you weren’t working for the Galra and wanted to kidnap me?” she hissed with anger but just as quickly as her temper flared up it dropped back into apathy “I just wanted to help you get off the planet as soon as possible. It doesn’t matter now.”

“Point taken,” Hunk muttered to himself, staring back at the floor, his shoulders slumping down.

Of course, they both kept forgetting that Voltron still had a long way to go until its Paladins were recognized across the Galaxy. People were bound to be wary of them until the word started to spread. They just wanted to help, but it really was hard when trust was such a sparse resource.

“I just-” she spoke up again, bitterly. “I just wanted to do something- make my brother proud,” her shoulders shook a little, “but I failed again. I really am the worst.” She hid her face in her hands.

“I’m sorry,” Lance slid closer to her, trying to offer comfort.

Hunk looked guilty. Their little mission probably did a lot more of harm to her than expected.

“Don’t be,” she shook her head. “I made a bad decision and now we all will pay for it. As per usual,” she inhaled sharply and leaned back over the wall of the vessel.

“Hey, don’t be such a downer! We all make mistakes. Did I even tell you how I got my Lion stolen the first time? Or how Hunk puked all over our French teacher during oral exam?” Lance tried to lighten her up.

“Oh God, please don’t remind me,” Hunk joined in on it. “I couldn’t look him in the eye for the whole week!”

Amoxtli snorted. “Did any of that end in someone dying?”

That shut Lance up.

“What happened?” Of course Hunk wanted to know.

“My brother... it was my brother. When Galra attacked, we were told to head to the shelters. I knew my brother and mother were fighting and I had this idea- I don’t even know why- that they will be beating the enemy effortlessly, like in the stories and I just wanted to see that? I wanted to cheer them on,” she licked her lips, furrowing her brows as she spoke. 

“So I sneaked out of the shelter and ran to the city where the main fights were taking place. To no surprise I was captured, and of course was stupid enough to shout at the enemy to put me down because 'I’m the princess' and they used that against me. My brother gave himself up for me. My mother never forgave me that. I bet she will be so happy to be able to finally punish me the way she wants.”

“But you were just a kid…” Lance said quietly.

“I am also a princess of Syvesin” she pointed out with an angry huff, her feathers flaring up and then falling back down, “age doesn’t matter in my mother’s eyes. Especially since I’m the runt of the family.” 

“That’s… rough.” Lance said slowly.

“I guess…” she fell silent again until the vehicle arrived at its destination.

The doors opened and cool air filled the aircraft. They stepped out of it, prodded and hurried along by soldiers. But these were not Syvesin soldiers anymore. These people had bat like wings, broad chests and bulky bodies with spikes growing down their spines. Their armour s was golden with flames etched onto it. In their hands were mean looking guns reassembling mini-cannons.

The landscape was also different. They were now high in the mountains with ice caps covering the peaks and the air was ice cold and clear. It was an incredible contrast from the tropical region of Ashoxsas. 

If it weren’t for the guards both boys would love to stare a bit more at the scenery, unfortunately they were rather violently shoved forward.

“Move it!” one of the guards snarled at them.

They went through a gigantic stone gate right into a dark and damp corridor, lit up with only faint, blue light from some crystals that were growing on the wall. The guards walked them toward a post where they got registered and directed to their cells.

“My first criminal record,” Lance sniffed, heartbroken. “Mom would be so disappointed.”

Behind him Hunk and Amoxtli rolled their eyes. 

After that they got separated. Amoxtli was pulled in a different direction while Hunk and Lance went in another. As they were locking them up into two neighbouring cells another guard ran up to them.

“Princess Cyzest’ja wants to see them.”

That was… an unexpected turn of events. Suddenly both Paladins were lead out of the dark stone prison and taken into higher levels with more lights and plush carpets. 

“Now I get why it’s called Golden Palace,” Lance murmured to Hunk as he observed the walls. They were literally glittering with gold between the light coloured stone.

Next they were ushered into a spacious room with enormous windows and elegant stone furniture. By a round coffee table sat a tall woman. She had copper-red hair reaching her shoulders and was wearing a red, floor length dress with an off the shoulders neckline. Dark red scales framed her face, marring her cheeks and going up on the sides of her face then down on the side of her neck and over her arms, finishing with golden claws on her hands. There were markings under her eyes that reminded both Paladins of Allura and Coran.

She was watching them with a smile playing on her lips. 

Hunk quickly shoved Lance before he spouted any pick up lines, which judging by the delighted blush on his face, would be one of the really bad ones.

“I really appreciate all your help, your Highness but-” suddenly someone entered the room from the side. A very familiar someone.

“SHIRO!” Hunk and Lance yelled and jumped toward the Black Paladin.

Shiro wasn’t wearing his armour. Instead he was dressed in a baggy, white shirt, and loose, black slacks. He hand handcuffs over his wrists and his mechanical arm was put in something resembling a metal cast, which was a emitting low, static hum - a device to make sure he wouldn’t be able to use the Galra tech.

“You’re alive!” Lance exclaimed looking over Shiro. “Ha! In your face Keith!”

“Man if it wasn't for the handcuffs I would hug you so hard!” Hunk’s face looked like he was considering doing that regardless. 

“It’s good to see you guys,” Shiro laughed once the surprise passed. “Is this the surprise you were talking about?” he asked Cyzest’ja a bit more sternly.

“Forgive me friend, but I couldn't have told you any sooner that they were here on Khanos,” the princess sipped something from her cup with an impish smile. “But the court was informed that they were captured and will be included in your sentence.”

“Sentence?” Lance head turned from Shiro to the princess and then back.

“So you're still a prisoner?” Hunk calmed down.

“Okay that’s it, we’re grabbing guns and leave this place blazing!” Lance exclaimed, reclaiming his battle spirit.

“No. No one is blazing anything.” Shiro crossed his arms on his chest. Decision was final. “We’re going to wait for the court’s decision. Something tells me you caused enough troubles as it is.”

“But Shiro-!” Lance whined.

“No 'but's Lance!” 

“Awww…”

Cyzest’ja laughed at their antics. “You were right, they  _ are  _ a colourful bunch,” she put her cup down. “I wouldn't worry for the jury’s decision. Shiro explained everything to us. The analysis of the Black Lion we did in his presence, along with the repairs we had to perform on it, confirmed some of his words and you two here with another Lion cleared things further.” She hummed.

Hunk sighed with relief. “That is good to hear.”

“Yeah! We should totally get Amoxtli afterwards so we can tell you everything.” Lance suggested.

“Princess Amoxtli is not included in your sentence, she will be judged separately on conviction of high treason.” Cyzest’ja quickly cooled his enthusiasm. 

“What?” The Blue Paladin frowned. Was she joking?

“That doesn't make sense. If we're going to be pardoned then why-” Hunk tried to understand.

“Amoxtli broke Syvesin law,” Cyzest’ja explained. “Each nation has their own rules regarding their own citizens. Amoxtli is going to face the consequences of helping you two.”

“What will they do to her?” Hunk asked. “Nothing too bad right? I mean she’s a princess and all. They won’t go too hard on her.”

“I believe yours and our concepts of royalty are very different,” Cyzest'ja started slowly. “Being royal here is a job, like that of a baker. Law is the same for both. And Syvesin law is very harsh. For treason they are going to cut her wings of and then either give her a life sentence in one of the mines or execute her. Knowing Eme, she’d rather see her daughter dead than have her shame the family alive.”

Both Hunk and Lance went pale. That just wasn't right. It couldn't end like this.

Shiro looked between his Paladins and the princess. “I think you two have something to tell me.”

One story time later, the four of them was trying to figure out how to help Amoxtli.

“We can’t just let them kill her!” Lance stood up from the chair directing these words to Shiro and Cyzest’ja. 

“I’m with Lance. She helped us, we got her in trouble. It’s only fair we get her out of this,” Hunk joined him.

“I understand what you feel but we know little of Khanos’ law system,” Shiro told them. “Is it even possible to help her?” he asked Cyzest'ja.

“There might be something, but it depends on how willing Eme will be to go with it,” she replied after giving it a short thought.

“Tell us about it.” Shiro leaned forward.

An hour later Shiro, Hunk and Lance were lead into the throne room, which also doubled as the courtroom. 

At the dais, on the throne was the King of Khanos, Osylons royal, Aruyan. He was an elder male, with impressive height of 9 feet. His once golden scales dimmed with age and were cracked but he was still keeping himself tall and the humans were sure that he could still quite easily swing that war-hammer he was resting his hands on. He was dressed in red robes, embellished with gemstones and golden thread. His gilded horns were similar to those of a ram and had rubies dangle from them.

Behind the throne were a group of medics, ever vigilant of their elder ruler’s health. On the King’s right were the rest of Khanos’ rulers (as introduced earlier by Cyzest’a to them): Nyphrenian King Min - a short male, no taller than Amoxtli, similar to Ji’en with a white mane and black scales, unlike the shopkeeper his tail didn’t end with a fin but furr, his antlers had fabric and gems wrapped around them. He was wearing a green robe with wide sleeves.

Next to him was the Nulas Queen, Raabua, taller than Min, with a long snake like neck with horns like a gazelle. She had brown scales with white, circular markings, her  bat-like wings were replacing her arms. Her purple robe went over one arm and loosely hung from her hips, a necklace of diamonds sparkled over her chest.

Third in line was Syvesin Queen Eme - 6 feet 10 inches tall, with emerald green scales and blood red feathers, similarly to Amoxtli she had her brows pierced with an additional nasal piercing that had a chain attached to an ear opening on her left side. Her crest was decorated with gemstones and there was a silver band over her forehead. She wore a purple skirt with red sash tied around her hips.

And the last in line was…

“Hey, Shiro,” Lance whispered to the Black Paladin. “Where’s Cyzest’ja?”

“She’s right up there.” Shiro whispered back gesturing to the right of the throne.

“Where? The last one is another dragon-person.” Lance stared at the last Khanosian in the line.

What he assumed, from what he saw around, was that this was a female Osylons soldier, a general maybe. She had dark red scales and bull horns on top of her head. There were golden cuffs on her wings. She wore golden armour like the rest of the Osylons soldiers but had a short, red skirt with it that reminded Lance of Roman soldiers. She noticed his staring and winked at him.

Lance’s mouth fell open and he quickly shook his head. “What?!” he whispered in shock.

Shiro smirked, slightly. It wasn’t as if he didn’t have a similar reaction to that.

“Apparently, she has some Altean ancestors who-” he began to explain but was interrupted by Raabua, loudly clearing her throat.

“Can we begin?” She raised one disapproving eyebrow at the earthlings and Shiro ducked his head.

“Yes, of course.”

“The council of Khanos has reviewed your case in full now.” Aruyan said slowly. “And we have decided that you, Shirogane Takashi of Earth and your comrades will be granted a pardon for trespassing Khanos. You, for having no choice but to fall into our lure due to the failure of your Lion,” King made a pause to cough violently, which made the medics behind him twitch. “And your men,” he cleared his throat and accepted a glass of water from one of the nurses, “for wanting to save their leader from an unknown planet. Therefore you are justified and are free to leave Khanos  _ as soon as possible. _ ” No one could miss the stress the King put on the last bit. It was clear they wanted the Paladins out.

The guards walked up to them removing their handcuffs.

“Thank you, your majesty,” Shiro bowed his head, rubbing his wrist. It felt good to have those finally off. “May I speak freely?” Now back to serious business.

“Hrm, what about?” The King returned the glass to the nurses.

“My people came here lead by Syvesin princess Amoxtli, I was informed she will be trialed later,” Shiro took a step forward and looked toward Eme. “We would like to stand in her defence and maybe propose a deal.”

Syvesin Queen stepped forward, her sharp features pulled into an angry expression. “How dare you meddle in matters that are not your own?! You don’t know our law!”

“With all due respect, your majesty, but the princess helped my people, for which, from what I heard, she might be executed. I think it somewhat concerns us,” Shiro replied to her, his chin up and he crossed his arms on his chest. He was in his serious mode. “I only ask you to hear us out.”

“I think we should hear their offer,” Cyzest’ja spoke up with a small smile, ignoring the thunderous glare Eme send her way.

King Aruyan nodded. “Let them speak.”

“Fine, although this is Syvesin’s business! It has nothing to do with the Khanos’ council,” Eme huffed.

“Thank you, your majesty.” Shiro shifted a bit on his feet. “My Paladins reported that the princess has not finished her rite yet-”

“And how do YOU know how our rites work?” Eme interrupted him.

“I explained it to them,” Cyzest’ja quickly supplied. “Amoxtli had not yet visited the Temple of Sun God and had not made her vows and thus has not yet aligned herself with any specific wing.”

There was an angry growl coming from Eme to which Cyzest’ja just blinked innocently. “Have I overstepped any boundaries, Eme? I merely wanted to educate our prisoners on the wonder that is Syvesin’s culture.”

“If I needed educators for aliens, I’d assign one of my own,” Eme hissed back.

“As I understand, this means she’s free to chose any squad approved by you, your majesty?” Shiro inquired further.

Eme stared at Shiro for a longer while, a sneer was forming on her face. “Yes, that is true.”

“On Earth we have this custom in which a warrior would restore their honor. I’d like to propose that she joins my team and helps us fight Zarkon in direct fight.”

“That’s insane!” King Min exclaimed. “Galra Empire-”

“Oh shut up Min!” Eme barked at him. “This doesn’t concern you. You all are cowards sitting here like flock of clyks hoping to just avoid the worst!” She huffed, before her expression switched to thoughtful, assessing Shiro’s proposition. She licked her lips with her forked tongue. “You say she’ll get a chance to fight Galra directly?” She asked Shiro.

“Yes.” 

“Hmm…” she turned her head to Aruyan. “Your Majesty, I’ll need some time to think about the proposal, discuss it with my husband. I shall give my decision when my people bring the Lions here from Ashoxsas.”

“Very well, then Amoxtli’s trial shall be postponed until then,” the old King nodded. “Court dismissed!” He stood up and left the throne room, followed by medics running quickly after him.

The rest of the royals each went their own way s except for Eme and Cyzest’ja. The two walked up to the Paladins. Shiro and Eme seized each other with their eyes, neither backing out, before Eme cracked a smirk.

“I will have my eye on you earthling,” she warned him before walking away and joining a much shorter Syvesin male with grey feathers and dark yellow scales.

“Well that went surprisingly well,” Cyzest’ja grinned at them, placing her hand on her hip. “Good call with mentioning the Galra. No one in the Council pushes to fight them openly like Eme does.”

“Why  _ aren’t _ you fighting them openly by the way?” Lance asked her, tilting his head and crossing his arms on his chest. “I’ve seen your weapons, they are like totally cool and probably better than what Galra has!”

“You have to understand that 500 years for Khanosians is a short amount of time, people still remember the siege that happened, you can say that we barely managed to rebuild what was destroyed then,” the princess toyed with a rin that was hanging around her neck like a necklace. “What it ties to is the King’s deteriorating health. We do not want to engage ourselves in a war and then worry about choosing a new ruler in the middle of it.”

“Isn’t there like a line of succession?” Shiro threw in.

“Yyeesss,” she said slowly, “but it’s not a set in stone thing. Those on Khanos tend to be… quirky. A successor has to be the one most compatible with the planet’s quintessence to uphold the barrier. It’s sorted rather quickly usually but during war all successors would be scattered on battlefields.”

“Can’t you just… do a quick check now?” Hunk suggested. “You know, where everything is good and peaceful.”

“I’d love that to happen, but you know - tradition,” Cyzest’ja rolled her eyes and snorted. “Try to talk some of those hux’harrkha out of their thrice blasted rituals. I wish you luck.”

“Can we see Amoxtli, by the way?” Hunk changed subject.

“I’m afraid that will be impossible, she’s a Syvesin prisoner. You’ll have to wait until the trial in two hours.”

The Blue and Yellow Paladin sighed in disappointment. At least it wasn’t that far away - they would just save the princess and leave the planet. Just a couple more hours.

In that time Hunk found his way to the engineering room, Lance managed to get slapped by one of the females and Shiro was finally allowed to change into his Paladin armour, although someone seemed to have lost his helmet and a mad search for it ensued. 

Once the time for the trial arrived Hunk had to be dragged away from all the equipment in the engineering room by his collar, and Lance was sporting an impressive black eye to go with the swollen red cheek. Shiro shook his head disapprovingly at the two, giving them a talk on duty and diplomatic representation. 

Again they stood in the throne room, but this time it wasn’t them being judged. Lance shuddered at the sight of doctors at the opposing end of the room to them, the amputation squad, as he called them. Soon Amoxtli was lead in, wearing the same prison uniform as Shiro had earlier. When she spotted them she paused surprised to see them there, but then she got shoved to move forward by the guard and put in front of her mother.

As the two looked at each other the atmosphere grew icy cold.

“Amoxtli,” Eme began, “you are here to be judged for the crime of treason. You helped two aliens infiltrate our city, palace and shared top secret information with them. You mislead the guards and resisted arrest. How do you plead?”

Amoxtli sighed heavily, then said: “Guilty.”

“Will you try to defend yourself?” Eme’s face was unreadable.

“No.” Came the short reply and Shiro had to hold Lance down before the Blue Paladin jumped forward and interrupted the trial.

“Very well, I have made my decision, then,” Eme took a deep breath and straightened herself up. “Amoxtli, second child of mine and King Quetzal of Syvesin - you will be striped down of your wings and sentenced to a thousand solar cycles in the mines of Quilikin.” 

Amoxtli hung her head, making peace already with the judgment, the Paladins wore horrified expressions

“Unless,” Eme suddenly added, “you accept Shirogane Takashi as your commander and join his team. I will require you then take, let’s say 100 Galra lives, so they will pay for the devastation of Ashoxsas and your brother’s death.” 

Amoxtli stared in shock at her mother. Was- was this some sort of joke? She looked around looking for someone to confirm her suspicion, but no. Only Lance giving her a double thumbs up. 

“I accept!” she nearly shouted at Eme who got taken aback by that for a second.

“Good. This is my judgement and it shall be so.” The Queen announced, then removed the bindings from her daughters wings and handcuffs herself.

“Thank you,” Amoxtli told her, rubbing her wrists to get some sense of feeling back.

“Do not thank me, you still broke the law. But between your foolishness and getting revenge on the Galra, I’ll always chose revenge.” Eme shot back. “Now go to your new commander, you need to do your vows.”

She didn’t have to say that twice to Amoxtli. The princess bowed shallowly to her mother and immediately sprinted toward Shiro, doing a small slide as she stopped in front of him and the others. She saluted him in Khanosian manner, by placing her right hand flat over her left shoulder, then turned to her friends. Shiro quickly stepped aside.

“Hunk! Lance!” Amoxtli called to them and threw herself over their necks. “Thank you! I don’t know how you did it, but- thank you!” she nearly had tears in her eyes.

“We couldn’t just leave you like that,” Hunk replied. “Besides we had help, from Cyzest’ja.”

“The paladin’s of Voltron never leave their friends in need.” Lance added. 

“I will need to thank her too,” she quickly wiped her tears away, then turned to Shiro. “I think we need proper introduction.”

“That would be good, I’m Shiro, Black Paladin of Voltron.” Shiro offered her his hand for a handshake.

“I’m Amoxtli, princess of Syvesin, second child of Eme and Quetzal, Queen and King of the Ashoxsas region on Khanos,” she hesitated with the handshake but eventually took it. Earthlings had such odd manner of greeting people they don’t know. “Technically once I do my pledge I’m going to be a captain but I guess that won’t matter until I get back to Khanos.”

“100 Galra is quite a lot.” Shiro noted. “It might take you a while.”

“I know, but I’m stubborn and persistent,” she assured him with a light smile. “Don’t worry, I know how to follow orders.” She assured him before he could comment on that, instead he just nodded.

“Good. Now, tell me something about that pledging ceremony.”

“Well-”

In the end they didn’t do the whole official part of the pledge. Eme dragged everyone relevant to the ceremony - Shiro, Amoxtli, Quetzal and Cyzest’ja as Kings Aruyan’s representative, and Hunk with Lance as spectators - into a small chapel of the Sun God where they finished the ceremony by saying a couple of lines. Then Quetzal presented Amoxtli with new, white armour with the symbol of the crescent moon on it and a weapons - new set of knives and a spear. She hugged him tightly and exchanged stiff nods with her mother. Cyzest’ja gave her a playful shove and wished good luck on her quest.

“Ready to go explore the stars?” Shiro asked her as she took place behind him in the Black Lion. (Lance was unhappy with this arrangement to say the least).

“I’m a bit nervous honestly,” she looked around, anxiety mixing on her face with excitement. “I never left my planet before,” she chuckled awkwardly, her feathers on her crest twitching constantly, “but yes. I am.”

“Great,” he smiled seeing her twitching like that. It reminded him of when he went into space for the first time. Before Kerberos, before... “Let’s go!”

“ _ Yeah! _ ” He heard Hunk and Lance shout over the comms and the two Lions shot out into the sky.

The moment they shot past the barrier, they were met with Zarkon’s fleet. Shiro’s Lion picked a signal from the Green Paladin.

“Pidge! What’s your status?”

“ _ It’s bad! We’re under heavy fire! And I can’t drag Keith to his Lion! He said he has to save his father! _ ”

“His father?”

“ _ Long story! No time for it now! _ ” Pidge shouted, voice raised to be louder than the sounds of laser guns fire.

“Got it, we’re going in! Hold on tight!” Shiro closed the communication. “You might cash on some of those Galran lives sooner than you thought.” He told Amoxtli, then directed his next words to the other Paladins. “Hunk! Lance! Go grab the Yellow Lion from the Castle ship! We might need to form Voltron!”

“ _ Got it! We’ll be back in a tick! _ ”

Out of the frying pan and right into the fire. Looked like the Paladins’ work was never over.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we are! This is the end of this story. I hope you actually liked this arc! We're going to see more of Amoxtli in Family, so I do hope you liked her >.> Also! I posted some headcanons regarding Khanos on my tumblr right [ HERE ](http://margoteve.tumblr.com/post/149524752825/khanos-headcanons)
> 
> I encourage you to leave a comment here or poke me about it on my tumblr.


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